As General Partner – New York, Joshua oversees the day to day activities and operations of Rubicon including evaluating early stage technology companies seeking funding, assisting current portfolio companies with development and interaction with our angels, attracting LP capital, and development of our network. Joshua has extensive experience and connections in technology, real estate, luxury lifestyle brands, digital media, and consumer products.

Previously, Mr. Siegel was an early stage strategic advisor for startups and real estate concerns, and board member of The Founders Club, an equity exchange based liquidity platform for entrepreneurs. Formerly CEO Professional Connection Resources, an enterprise level marketing system for the legal community, Manager Eastern European Banking Systems at Citibank, Director of Market Intelligence at Citicorp Debt Capital Markets.

Mr. Siegel received his BA degree from Boston University in Economics and Business Administration and received his MBA from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business in Finance and Entrepreneurship in 2000. He also holds a Degree in Gastronomy from the Institute of Culinary Education in New York. Joshua was born and raised in New York City, attending Horace Mann, where he lives with his wife, son and daughter.

Richard Foster, LaunchPad

Richard Foster is a driven entrepreneur and angel investor with a passion for new business development. His entrepreneurial spirit has taken him down many roads. Mr. Foster holds seven U.S. Patents for the creation of his line of sports-themed clocks, "TIME for SPORTS", which have been distributed in fifteen countries around the world. Mr. Foster has been named the "Youngest Entrepreneur" by the New York Times as well as appearing in a wide variety of radio, TV, and print nationwide. He has been selected to ring the closing bell at the world famous New York Stock Exchange. Foster currently serves as President of Foster Management & Holdings, the holdings company for his numerous business investments and ventures. He also serves on the board and is actively involved in an executive capacity in several of his companies. Foster is the Launch Director of LaunchPad LI in Mineola and a Board member of the Long Island Angel Network.

Mr. Finkle is an angel investor and entrepreneur and former Managing and Founding Partner of Odeon Capital. He is the co-chair of the Evaluation Committee for ARC Angel Fund. Prior to raising $115 milllion for Odeon Capital Partners I, Mr. Finkle had a 20-year career in the fields of entrepreneurial management, general management, corporate development and marketing in the computer software industry. He served as Vice President of Corporate Business Development at Computer Associates International, and prior to Computer Associates' acquisition of Cheyenne Software, served as Cheyenne's Vice President of Corporate Development and Corporate Marketing where he had overall responsibility for corporate and product positioning. Prior to that, he served as Vice President and General Manager of Cheyenne's Unix Division. Prior to Cheyenne, Mr. Finkle was Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Applied Programming Technologies, which he represented for sale to Cheyenne in 1993. Early in his career, Mr. Finkle co-founded N/Hance Systems a peripheral manufacturing and software development company. Today Mr. Finkle serves as Chairman of Service Channel Inc, a web based transaction management platform providor to the service maintanance industry, and Managing Member of two TV direct response entities. Mr. Finkle also serves as Secretary of the Board of Directors of PSCH a not-for-profit serving the mentally ill and developmentally disabled.

Murat is an engineer, author and technology entrepreneur. He recently sold Centrl, a location-based social networking startup that he founded in 2008. At the time of the sale, the application was the first to offer a free IM-on-a-map-system that was not reliant on SMS.

A tireless force on the NYC tech startup scene, Murat founded the Entrepreneurs Roundtable in 2007. The organization, which holds monthly "short pitch" format meetings connecting investors with promising startups, has created active and engaged communities New York City, Philadelphia, Turkey and Japan, with India and China coming soon.

In 2011, Murat co-authored Location-Aware Applications, a comprehensive guide to the technology and business of creating compelling location-based services and applications.

Murat has served as a consultant to Fortune 500 companies and some of the world's most well known brands including AT&T, Sony, Panasonic, Logitech and Pioneer. He has established engineering infrastructures and software development methodologies for numerous startups including Improv, Sonicbox, Plaxo, Manyone and Coollris. His expertise has been in constant demand; he has managed engineering teams for Silicon Graphics in Mountain View and Sony Corporation in San Jose and Tokyo.

He is a frequent speaker at technology and entrepreneurship conferences and panels, such as Mobile Marketing Association Forum, Monaco Media Forum, Ultra Light Startups, Siggraph and New York Entrepreneur Week.

Murat serves as a board member for the Turkish American Business Forum and is co-founder of the Turkish Founders Club. He is an advisor at MIT Enterprise Forum, Standard Start, Girls In Tech and the Turkish Women's International Network.

Murat holds an M.S. in Computer Science and a B.S. in Electrics and Electronics from Bilkent University, in Ankara, Turkey.

Yao Huang, Pereg Ventures

Yao is a highly entrepreneurial executive who works with businesses and start-ups in many industries with a focus on technology, assisting with revenue and funding.

Yao is Managing Partner at Pereg Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm affiliated with Nielsen looking at data and businesses that solve real-world marketing and advertising problems.

She founded The Hatchery, a venture collaboration organization with international reach bridging the gap between entrepreneurs and investors through resources, advisory, funding and building communities. She has had multiple successes as an entrepreneur and supports other companies in advisory and C level management roles. She leads up the enterprise incubator in New York building products with corporate partners -- from ideation, development, sales, funding to exit.

Yao was named by Forbes as 1 of 11 women at the center of New York’s digital scene, and by Beta Beat as one of 25 Women Driving New York’s Tech Scene. She also traveled with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Indonesia in 2011, as a member of the Global Entrepreneurship Program Delegation.

Yao is a sought after speaker in areas of building internet companies, technology, social media, and entrepreneurship. Yao and her efforts have been featured in Fortune, Inc Magazine, The Miami Herald, Reuters, Daily News, Red Herring, Crains, American Venture. She has a particular passion for helping entrepreneurs, women, and social causes with projects in place to build global communities, push more women into executive positions.

Alex Feldman, CrowdsUnite

Alex Feldman helps small businesses with raising money online. His website CrowdsUnite brings together the top funding websites from around the world. CrowdsUnite is the number one site of user reviews for funding platforms. Alex was mentioned in publications like the Huffington post. His writings about crowdfunding were published on major websites like crowdsourcing.org . Vator.TV interviewed him about helping small businesses with funding. He runs a successful monthly crowdfunding networking events in NYC with over 400 members.

Geoff founded Cava Capital in 2007 based on the idea that entrepreneurial experience is essential to being a great investor in start-ups. Geoff has more than 20 years of operational and leadership experience with a range of companies in consumer marketing and media, technology products and services, information services and Internet marketing. He has helped build over twenty venture-funded businesses into viable high growth enterprises, been instrumental in raising millions of dollars of venture capital, worked with many companies as advisor and investor and sat on several boards of directors at various stages of company growth. Geoff has participated in several Angel investments and has been a strategic investor in two venture capital funds. He currently oversees day-to-day management of the firm, chairs the Operation and Investment Committees and leads coordination efforts with the Cava Ecosystem for portfolio company development. Geoff holds a B.S. in Finance from Lehigh University as well as an M.B.A. from George Washington University. He is married with two children and enjoys competitive golf and fine wine.

Katherine O’Neill is the Executive Director for JumpStart New Jersey Angel Network, a member led angel investor group that invests in early stage high growth companies in Mid-Atlantic region, and an investor in technology businesses. She currently serves on the Board of the Angel Capital Association ACA the national organization representing angel investor groups in North America. She recently was the Program Chair of the ACA National Leadership Conference held in 2010. Katherine represents the ACA at both national and international events.
Katherine is a member of the NJ Economic Development Authority Edison Fund Advisory Board, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of SEPA Advisory Board, NJ Technology CFO Advisory Board, Princeton University MIRTHE Investment Focus Group and Rutgers Innovation Park Advisory Board. In recent years she has spoken at and judged business plan competitions both regionally and nationally at events such as IMPACT, Astia, Microsoft BizSpark NYC competition, Tri State Donald W. Reynolds Cup, Princeton University Jumpstart Innovation Forum and Start Up Weekend Princeton.

Katherine is a seasoned financial executive and investor in early stage enterprises with extensive experience in start up and entrepreneurial operations as well as operational experiences in a diverse range of businesses. She has particular expertise developing technology-based business as well as strategic business plans. She has extensive multinational experience and financial operation management and knowledge of healthcare pharmaceuticals, information systems, e-commerce and social media. She is the president of O’Neill Associates and consults with technology companies and acts as interim CFO.

Kathy Murray is owner of McMorran Strategists, LLC. Earlier, Kathy held C-Suite level positions at publicly-traded firms
and partnerships - Aetna, PwC and FARO - in sales, business development and operations.
Other affiliations include: Emeriti Board & Immediate Past President of Harvard Business School Women's
Association of NY, Trustee on the University of Rochester Board, Board Member at the Daily Gazette (a Schenectady
family-owned publishing firm), Advisor to TempBuddy (a Dublin startup software for managing temp employees), Chair of
Executive Forum, Founder of Executive Forum Angels and Fellow at the Foreign Policy Association. Kathy is also a
frequent speaker/instructor on business development, angel investing, innovation, strategic thinking and building
relationships.
Kathy received a BA in Math/General Science from the University of Rochester and the Advanced Management
Program Degree from Harvard Business School.

Erica Duignan Minnihan, DreamIt Ventures

Prior to DreamIT Ventures, Erica Duignan Minnihan was the Executive Director of Golden Seeds, an early stage investor group with offices in New York City, Boston and San Francisco, where she managed deal sourcing and screening, due diligence, and investment processes for the group. Prior to joining Golden Seeds, Erica has held a variety of roles in the Investment Banking sector, working for firms including Cantor Fitzgerald, Citigroup and Credit Suisse.

Erica herself is an entrepreneur, having founded a beverage company that produces products for mothers focused on healthy lifestyles in 2009 which was subsequently sold to a consumer and media investment group. She has also worked with a variety of early stage and start‐up companies providing expertise as a consultant for equity fundraising and general capital strategy. In addition, she is a regular on‐air contributor to MSNBC's "Your Business" as a financial and small business expert. Erica received her MBA in finance and real estate with honors from Columbia University and a BA in Business Economics from the University of California at Los Angeles.

John Ason has been an angel investor for over 18 years specializing in early stage pre-revenue companies. He has made over sixty eclectic investments in the areas of e-commerce, technology, advertising, digital social media and entertainment. For about half of his investments, John has been the lead angel devoting a significant amount of his time to mentoring the companies. A typical company consists of one or two people in a garage or kitchen with minimal or no revenues. Any capital efficient industry with high growth potential qualifies with the exception of medical and biotech qualifies. As a starting point, John will accept only one page executive level summaries via email (ason@comcast.net).

Some of John's notable exits include Xlibris.com, LiveLOOK.com sold to Oracle and Diapers.com sold to Amazon for $545 million.

Prior to being an angel investor John had a career at AT&T Bell Labs. He spent the first ten years doing bleeding edge technology development and then 15 years marketing large telecommunications systems to international telecommunications companies. John guest lectures at NJIT, Fairleigh Dickinson, Rutgers, NYU and Wharton. John is a mentor at the Entrepreneurial Roundtable, DreamIt, TechLaunch, and Worldwide Investor Network accelerators. John is an advisor to the Astia and Springboard womens organizations. John has a BS in Mathematics from the Illinois Institute of Technology. John’s hobbies include traveling, golf, Go (Asian game) and mentoring companies. Please visit his website at JohnAson.com and his pins at Pinterest.com/johnason.

Christina leads sourcing and due diligence efforts on potential investments with a strong interest in mobile and the Internet of Things, and is responsible for organizing training and education events for members. She is a particularly eager supporter of young, New York based entrepreneurs.

Christina has a professional background in emerging markets and structured finance. She also serves as Vice Chairman of Hope on a String, a non-profit, grassroots organization that seeks to foster an environment of social transformation and economic development in Haiti through participation in music, a Vice President of the Board of Governors of the Hotchkiss School Alumni Association and Founder of InterprepNYC, a social and networking organization which connects U.S. and UK prep school alumni in New York. Christina graduated cum laude from the honors program of Boston College with a B.S. in Management.

Gil Beyda is a seasoned entrepreneur turned venture capitalist. Gil launched his first company Mind Games in 1982 to develop games for the original Apple II. Gil then started a software consulting firm with Fortune 100 clients in the U.S., Asia and Europe.

In 1995, Gil helped pioneer Internet advertising by founding Real Media, the first online ad network and ad server company. After Real Media was acquired in 2001, Gil pioneered the next wave of online advertising as CTO of TACODA, the first behavioral targeting, ad network. Following AOL’s acquisition of TACODA in 2007, Gil founded Genacast Ventures in partnership with Comcast Ventures.

Alon Hillel-Tuch, RocketHub

Alon Hillel-Tuch is one of the co-founders of RocketHub, one of the world’s largest crowdfunding platforms. Alon grew up in The Netherlands, and speaks English, Dutch, German, and Mandarin Chinese. Prior to RocketHub, Alon worked at BCMS Corporate (an international mid-market investment bank) overseeing their special situations department. Alon has enjoyed working as a strategic digital consultant with a variety of startups to help get their feet off the ground before becoming part of RocketHub’s founding team.

Tim Haddock is the Co-Founder and CEO of Fundamental Financial, one the nations leading commercial finance firms focused on providing financing solutions to emerging and high growth companies. Fundamental offers an array of financing vehicles ranging from as small as $100,000 to as large as $10 million, including Lines of Credit, AR & Inventory Finance, Asset Based Lending and Venture Debt.

Prior to Co-Founding Fundamental Financial, Tim was a Partner & Managing Director with the global merchant banking firm Greenhill & Co. (NYSE:GHL) where he was the 5th professional promoted to Partner in the firm's history. During his career he has advised on over $75 billion of capital raising, financing and merger transactions.

Tim earned his MBA in Finance & Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and his undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Texas Christian University where he was a Stark Foundation Scholarship recipient.

Tim resides on the Upper West side of Manhattan with his wife and two of his three children – his oldest is now away at college.

William Reinisch is responsible for the investment activities in the New York office of Paladin Capital. He is also the CEO and Founder of XIV River. He specializes in strategy and investments for the high tech industry. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at Stevens Institute of Technology. He was most previously the Vice President of Strategy and Technology with Motorola. In this role he was responsible for intellectual property standards and the corporate technology portfolio in addition to positioning Motorola for growth in emerging new market segments. Previously, he was Vice President of strategy and new initiatives and joined Motorola as a strategic advisor to the Chief Strategy Office. Prior to joining Motorola he was Senior Vice President of operations and engineering at Magnolia Broadband, where he led engineering and operations for the company. Before that, he led the global technology organization at Multilink Technology Corporation, a company focused on high-speed solutions for advanced optical networks. He has authored several publications, presentations, three US patents and several patent applications. He earned an MBA from Fordham University and a B.S. from Rochester Institute of Technology (R.I.T.). As a native New Yorker, William is uniquely positioned to assist rapidly growing technology companies in the New York Market.

Andrew Cleland, Comcast Ventures

"The most exciting part about bringing a company to market? The moment when it tips over from 'not quite good enough' to the point at which customers start to obsess."

At Comcast Ventures Andrew sources, evaluates, and executes consumer Internet deals for Comcast Ventures, particularly in the areas of digital media, ad technology, games and education.

Prior to joining Comcast Ventures, Andrew was managing director of Time Warner Investments. Before that, he was the COO of TrustTheDJ, a London-based music start-up. Andrew started his career in Booz Allen & Hamilton’s media practice.

Andrew holds a master’s degree in Economics with highest distinction from Edinburgh University and received his M.B.A. from INSEAD in France.

Fun Fact: "Waaaay back, before I turned all serious, I used to DJ and to run nightclubs to fund buying records. Turntable, Spotify, and Sonos have since taken over, but I still treasure my vinyl collection."

Hadley Harris, Eniac Ventures

Hadley Harris is a Founding General Partner at Eniac Ventures. He has been actively working at the intersection of business and technology for 14 years.
Before focusing on Eniac fulltime, Hadley was a two-time entrepreneur in the mobile technology space. From 2007-2011 he was an executive at Vlingo, acquired by Nuance Communications for $225,000,000, where he held the roles of Head of Business & Market Strategy and Vice President of Marketing. At Vlingo, Hadley was responsible for the firm’s user acquisition and monetization. In the early years Hadley also lead Vlingo’s efforts in business development and finance. After Vlingo he became CMO of Thumb, a mobile social platform that boasted the 2nd highest user engagement next to Facebook. At Thumb he was responsible for all of the company’s marketing and business development activities until they were acquired in spring of 2012 by Ypulse. Before heading to Vlingo, Hadley worked at Charles River Ventures where he spent time helping with mobile investments while looking for a young startup to join. Prior to that, Hadley held a variety of roles including Corporate Strategy for Samsung and Product Management at Microsoft. He began his career as a software developer and engineering team manager for Pegasystems.
Hadley is a noted expert in the mobile space having been quoted or profiled in Forbes, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, GigaOm, Business Insider, MIT Technology Review and interviewed on Fox Business News. He was also named New York’s Best Early Stage Investors by Business Insider in 2012.
Hadley holds an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelors of Science in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Damon D'Amore, Founder, WayFounder

WayFounder is a new business generator focused on product and startup ideas that would likely never be considered in the current incubator and accelerator ecosystem. The company was founded on two core beliefs: First, great ideas come from everywhere. People from all walks of life have ideas for solutions to problems that aren’t currently offered by existing products in the market. They work full-time jobs, are students or simply lack the time, resources, experience or capital to realize their vision. Consequently, many of these “Idea Generators” are left with just that, an idea. WayFounder provides a platform and the resources for these ideas to get to market and succeed. Second, all startups have multiple founding moments, and the key team members vary as a company grows through different lifecycles.

Through online competitions, WayFounder sources ideas from all across America. WayFounder provides competition winners with a cash prize, a commitment to spend up to $50,000 bringing the first iteration of their idea to market and a royalty on those sales. If a product shows the promise of scaling it is spun out into a new company and WayFounder commits up to $250,000, bringing aboard an “Executive Entrepreneur” – a Founder/CEO with experience in that specific category to take the business to the next level and the Idea Generator receives founder equity in the new company.

Entrepreneurship, competition, idea generation, product development, startup financing and distribution are constantly evolving. The founding process also needs to evolve, and WayFounder is meeting this challenge by creating a community around a new breed of founders.

Damon D’Amore has spent the last three years in two startup ventures he co-founded in the consumer product and web/mobile spaces. Both experiences were inspirations for the business model of WayFounder.

With more than two decades experience in taking products from concept, through development, marketing and distribution, Damon has 15 years of experience producing high-profile, multi-million dollar marketing integrations in both television and online, Damon has worked closely with more than 250 of the most successful CEOs in the nation. In traditional media, Damon produced a number of creative brand integrations for Fortune 500 companies on multiple seasons of the reality television shows Undercover Boss and The Apprentice with Donald Trump. In the online space he produced the gaming promotions for Shrek the Third. Damon held the position of Vice President of Production and Development for the independent film and television studio The Shooting Gallery where he worked on films such as You Can Count On Me and commercial campaigns for major brands such as Sony.

Prior to his work in the entertainment and new media sectors, Damon spent five years on Wall Street where he brokered and traded a range of institutional products. Damon lives in Los Angeles with his wife and their chocolate lab.

Moderator: Steve Rosenbaum, Magnify.net

Steven Rosenbaum is an Author, Entrepreneur, and CEO.

He is the first-ever "Entrepreneur At Large" for New York City's Economic Development Corporation.

His book, Curation Nation, gives consumers and brand managers struggling with information overflow a set of examples and tools that can turn the data deluge into a useful new solution set.

And his digital video startup, Magnify.net, is rapidly becoming the largest video content curation platform on the web - powering more than 90,000 sites today.

These initiatives, along with his ten years of work with the National September 11th Memorial project, have made him one of the most sought after speakers in the new digital content arena.

Rosenbaum has been working with Curated Content since he created the groundbreaking hit MTV UNfiltered in the pre-web days. Since then, he's been a storyteller, filmmaker, and executive at media and web properties. He's produced films for HBO, A&E, National Geographic, CNN, MSNBC, and Discovery.

Mr. Freschman is a Managing Principal of Innovation Capital Advisors, LLC (ICA). ICA serves as the management company of Innovation Ventures, L.P. (IV), and the Delaware Innovation Fund (DIF). He has served as the President and CEO of the DIF since its establishment in 1995. The DIF is a seed- and early-stage venture capital fund that focuses on entrepreneurial ventures in the Mid-Atlantic region. Mr. Freschman has been responsible for all aspects of IV’s and the DIF’s management since its inception, including the business strategy, fiscal and operational management, raising investment capital, and evaluating all investment opportunities and portfolio company management.

Mr. Freschman is active in the venture and entrepreneurial communities. He is one of the organizers and initial investors in the Mid-Atlantic Angel Group, where he served on the angel fund's Executive and Investment Committees. He sits on a number of Boards, and has been a lecturer on venture capital, entrepreneurship and angel investing at The White House Conference on Small Business, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, the University of Delaware, Goldey-Beacom College, and Loyola College in Baltimore. He is the creator and founder of Early Stage East – the premier early-stage venture capital event on the East Coast. In 2001, Mr. Freschman was appointed by Gov. Ruth Ann Minner to chair the venture capital study of Delaware’s Strategic Economic Council. Mr. Freschman was appointed and served a three-year term representing New Castle County, Delaware, on the Small Business Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia through 2002.

Prior to establishing the DIF, Mr. Freschman was responsible for the formation of the corporate finance advisory division of McBride Shopa & Company, one of the largest certified public accounting and consulting firms in Delaware. Mr. Freschman began his career with the Enterprise Group of the Philadelphia office of Arthur Andersen, LLP, from 1984 through 1989. He graduated with honors with an MBA from Loyola College of Maryland and cum laude from the University of Delaware with a B.S. in accounting, where he was a John B. Lynch Scholar. He is also a member of Beta Gamma Sigma – the National Honor Society.

Bruce Lipnick, Crowd Alliance

Bruce H. Lipnick is Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Asset Alliance Corporation (“Asset Alliance”) and of Asset Alliance Advisors, Inc. He also heads Crowd Alliance and Sunshine Entertainment Group. As Chairman and CEO of Sunshine, he has assembled a quality, multi-platform of talented professionals in the area of music, film, and production support services.

Jouko Ahvenainen, Grow VC Group

Jouko Ahvenainen is a serial-entrepreneur, e.g. co-founder of Grow VC Group, a pioneer in new funding solutions, including equity p2p investments. He participated in changing US finance regulation, getting the Senate and President to allow crowdfunding and has worked with EU finance regulation. Jouko started his work with crowdfunding models in 2008. Jouko is a founder, partner and board member in several innovative digital finance companies. Jouko is also an advisor for US, European and Asian investing and finance programs. He has especially worked to plan and implement models to get crowd investing and institutional investor models to work together. Jouko has been listed Top 100 Influencers in digital industry as well as in crowdfunding.